2002–03 Atlanta Thrashers season

The 2002–03 Atlanta Thrashers season was the Thrashers' fourth season. The Thrashers placed third in the Southeast, eleventh in the East to miss the playoffs.

2002–03 Atlanta Thrashers
Division	3rd Southeast
Conference	11th Eastern
2002–03 record	31–39–7-5
Team information
General manager	Don Waddell
Coach	Bob Hartley
Captain	Shawn McEachern
Arena	Philips Arena
Team leaders
Goals	Dany Heatley (41)
Assists	Vyacheslav Kozlov (49)
Points	Dany Heatley (89)

Regular season

The Thrashers struggled defensively, allowing the most goals (284) and the most short-handed goals (14) of any team in the league.[1]

Final standings

Southeast Division

No.	CR		GP	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	Pts
1	3	Tampa Bay Lightning	82	36	25	16	5	219	210	93
2	6	Washington Capitals	82	39	29	8	6	224	220	92
3	11	Atlanta Thrashers	82	31	39	7	5	226	284	74
4	13	Florida Panthers	82	24	36	13	9	176	237	70
5	15	Carolina Hurricanes	82	22	43	11	6	171	240	61

[2]

Note: CR = Conference rank; GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; OTL = Overtime loss; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points
         Bolded teams qualified for the playoffs.

Eastern Conference[3]

R		Div	GP	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	Pts
1	P- Ottawa Senators	NE	82	52	21	8	1	263	182	113
2	Y- New Jersey Devils	AT	82	46	20	10	6	216	166	108
3	Y- Tampa Bay Lightning	SE	82	36	25	16	5	219	210	93
4	X- Philadelphia Flyers	AT	82	45	20	13	4	211	166	107
5	X- Toronto Maple Leafs	NE	82	44	28	7	3	236	208	98
6	X- Washington Capitals	SE	82	39	29	8	6	224	220	92
7	X- Boston Bruins	NE	82	36	31	11	4	245	237	87
8	X- New York Islanders	AT	82	35	34	11	2	224	231	83
8.5
9	New York Rangers	AT	82	32	36	10	4	210	231	78
10	Montreal Canadiens	NE	82	30	35	8	9	206	234	77
11	Atlanta Thrashers	SE	82	31	39	7	5	226	284	74
12	Buffalo Sabres	NE	82	27	37	10	8	190	219	72
13	Florida Panthers	SE	82	24	36	13	9	176	237	70
14	Pittsburgh Penguins	AT	82	27	44	6	5	189	255	65
15	Carolina Hurricanes	SE	82	22	43	11	6	171	240	61

Divisions: AT – Atlantic, NE – Northeast, SE – Southeast

P – Clinched Presidents Trophy; Y – Clinched Division; X – Clinched Playoff spot

Schedule and results

Regular season results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	L	October 11, 2002	3–5	@ Carolina Hurricanes (2002–03)	0–1–0–0
2	OTL	October 12, 2002	4–5 OT	Florida Panthers (2002–03)	0–1–0–1
3	L	October 16, 2002	2–3	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (2002–03)	0–2–0–1
4	L	October 18, 2002	5–8	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (2002–03)	0–3–0–1
5	L	October 19, 2002	4–5	New York Islanders (2002–03)	0–4–0–1
6	L	October 21, 2002	2–3	@ Florida Panthers (2002–03)	0–5–0–1
7	L	October 23, 2002	1–2	New Jersey Devils (2002–03)	0–6–0–1
8	L	October 26, 2002	3–4	@ Boston Bruins (2002–03)	0–7–0–1
9	L	October 29, 2002	0–4	Los Angeles Kings (2002–03)	0–8–0–1
10	T	October 31, 2002	3–3 OT	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (2002–03)	0–8–1–1
11	W	November 2, 2002	3–1	@ Florida Panthers (2002–03)	1–8–1–1
12	L	November 7, 2002	0–5	@ Chicago Blackhawks (2002–03)	1–9–1–1
13	W	November 9, 2002	6–4	@ Buffalo Sabres (2002–03)	2–9–1–1
14	W	November 11, 2002	2–1	Calgary Flames (2002–03)	3–9–1–1
15	W	November 13, 2002	3–2 OT	San Jose Sharks (2002–03)	4–9–1–1
16	L	November 15, 2002	1–5	Phoenix Coyotes (2002–03)	4–10–1–1
17	L	November 17, 2002	1–5	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (2002–03)	4–11–1–1
18	W	November 19, 2002	4–3 OT	Florida Panthers (2002–03)	5–11–1–1
19	L	November 22, 2002	1–3	Pittsburgh Penguins (2002–03)	5–12–1–1
20	L	November 23, 2002	3–6	@ Washington Capitals (2002–03)	5–13–1–1
21	L	November 26, 2002	2–3	@ Montreal Canadiens (2002–03)	5–14–1–1
22	W	November 28, 2002	7–4	New York Rangers (2002–03)	6–14–1–1
23	W	December 1, 2002	5–4	Washington Capitals (2002–03)	7–14–1–1
24	OTL	December 5, 2002	3–4 OT	@ Boston Bruins (2002–03)	7–14–1–2
25	OTL	December 6, 2002	6–7 OT	@ Washington Capitals (2002–03)	7–14–1–3
26	L	December 8, 2002	0–3	Edmonton Oilers (2002–03)	7–15–1–3
27	L	December 11, 2002	2–4	@ Phoenix Coyotes (2002–03)	7–16–1–3
28	L	December 13, 2002	1–3	@ Dallas Stars (2002–03)	7–17–1–3
29	L	December 14, 2002	0–4	@ St. Louis Blues (2002–03)	7–18–1–3
30	W	December 16, 2002	1–0	Toronto Maple Leafs (2002–03)	8–18–1–3
31	L	December 18, 2002	1–3	Philadelphia Flyers (2002–03)	8–19–1–3
32	OTL	December 20, 2002	2–3 OT	Carolina Hurricanes (2002–03)	8–19–1–4
33	L	December 23, 2002	1–5	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (2002–03)	8–20–1–4
34	W	December 27, 2002	5–3	@ Carolina Hurricanes (2002–03)	9–20–1–4
35	L	December 28, 2002	0–1	Boston Bruins (2002–03)	9–21–1–4
36	W	December 30, 2002	3–2 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (2002–03)	10–21–1–4
37	L	January 2, 2003	1–8	@ Ottawa Senators (2002–03)	10–22–1–4
38	L	January 3, 2003	1–4	Pittsburgh Penguins (2002–03)	10–23–1–4
39	L	January 5, 2003	4–5	Philadelphia Flyers (2002–03)	10–24–1–4
40	T	January 7, 2003	3–3 OT	Carolina Hurricanes (2002–03)	10–24–2–4
41	W	January 9, 2003	3–2 OT	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (2002–03)	11–24–2–4
42	L	January 11, 2003	3–7	@ New York Islanders (2002–03)	11–25–2–4
43	W	January 13, 2003	7–4	@ Philadelphia Flyers (2002–03)	12–25–2–4
44	W	January 15, 2003	1–0	Montreal Canadiens (2002–03)	13–25–2–4
45	W	January 17, 2003	3–1	Boston Bruins (2002–03)	14–25–2–4
46	L	January 19, 2003	1–4	New York Islanders (2002–03)	14–26–2–4
47	W	January 21, 2003	8–4	St. Louis Blues (2002–03)	15–26–2–4
48	T	January 23, 2003	3–3 OT	Ottawa Senators (2002–03)	15–26–3–4
49	W	January 25, 2003	4–1	@ New York Rangers (2002–03)	16–26–3–4
50	W	January 28, 2003	5–2	New York Rangers (2002–03)	17–26–3–4
51	L	January 30, 2003	2–5	Toronto Maple Leafs (2002–03)	17–27–3–4
52	W	February 4, 2003	4–3	@ Montreal Canadiens (2002–03)	18–27–3–4
53	W	February 7, 2003	4–2	@ New Jersey Devils (2002–03)	19–27–3–4
54	L	February 8, 2003	1–3	@ Ottawa Senators (2002–03)	19–28–3–4
55	L	February 12, 2003	1–5	Washington Capitals (2002–03)	19–29–3–4
56	T	February 14, 2003	2–2 OT	Tampa Bay Lightning (2002–03)	19–29–4–4
57	L	February 15, 2003	2–6	Detroit Red Wings (2002–03)	19–30–4–4
58	W	February 17, 2003	4–3 OT	Buffalo Sabres (2002–03)	20–30–4–4
59	L	February 19, 2003	0–2	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (2002–03)	20–31–4–4
60	T	February 23, 2003	3–3 OT	@ Edmonton Oilers (2002–03)	20–31–5–4
61	L	February 25, 2003	0–8	@ Vancouver Canucks (2002–03)	20–32–5–4
62	W	February 27, 2003	4–3 OT	@ Colorado Avalanche (2002–03)	21–32–5–4
63	L	March 1, 2003	1–4	@ Los Angeles Kings (2002–03)	21–33–5–4
64	W	March 2, 2003	4–1	@ Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (2002–03)	22–33–5–4
65	T	March 6, 2003	4–4 OT	@ Washington Capitals (2002–03)	22–33–6–4
66	L	March 7, 2003	1–2	Florida Panthers (2002–03)	22–34–6–4
67	L	March 9, 2003	4–6	Minnesota Wild (2002–03)	22–35–6–4
68	W	March 11, 2003	3–2	@ New Jersey Devils (2002–03)	23–35–6–4
69	L	March 13, 2003	2–4	Montreal Canadiens (2002–03)	23–36–6–4
70	W	March 15, 2003	5–3	Buffalo Sabres (2002–03)	24–36–6–4
71	W	March 17, 2003	3–2	Columbus Blue Jackets (2002–03)	25–36–6–4
72	OTL	March 19, 2003	4–5 OT	Dallas Stars (2002–03)	25–36–6–5
73	L	March 21, 2003	1–5	Ottawa Senators (2002–03)	25–37–6–5
74	W	March 22, 2003	3–2	@ Columbus Blue Jackets (2002–03)	26–37–6–5
75	L	March 24, 2003	2–6	@ Philadelphia Flyers (2002–03)	26–38–6–5
76	W	March 26, 2003	5–1	Carolina Hurricanes (2002–03)	27–38–6–5
77	T	March 28, 2003	1–1 OT	New Jersey Devils (2002–03)	27–38–7–5
78	W	March 29, 2003	3–2	@ Nashville Predators (2002–03)	28–38–7–5
79	W	March 31, 2003	4–3 OT	@ New York Rangers (2002–03)	29–38–7–5
80	L	April 2, 2003	3–4	@ Buffalo Sabres (2002–03)	29–39–7–5
81	W	April 5, 2003	3–2	@ New York Islanders (2002–03)	30–39–7–5
82	W	April 6, 2003	6–2	Tampa Bay Lightning (2002–03)	31–39–7–5

Playoffs

The Thrashers failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
Dany Heatley	LW	77	41	48	89	58	-8	19	1	6
Vyacheslav Kozlov	LW	79	21	49	70	66	-10	9	1	2
Ilya Kovalchuk	LW	81	38	29	67	57	-24	9	0	3
Marc Savard	C	57	16	31	47	77	-11	6	0	4
Patrik Stefan	C	71	13	21	34	12	-10	3	0	2
Yannick Tremblay	D	75	8	22	30	32	-27	5	0	1
Shawn McEachern	RW	46	10	16	26	28	-27	4	1	1
Tony Hrkac	C	80	9	17	26	14	-16	2	0	2
Frantisek Kaberle	D	79	7	19	26	32	-19	3	1	2
Andy Sutton	D	53	3	18	21	114	-8	1	1	0
Lubos Bartecko	LW	37	7	9	16	8	3	0	0	1
Daniel Tjarnqvist	D	75	3	12	15	26	-20	1	0	0
Dan Snyder	C	36	10	4	14	34	-4	0	1	1
Brad Tapper	RW	35	10	4	14	23	2	1	0	3
Pascal Rheaume	C	56	4	9	13	24	-8	0	2	1
Richard Smehlik	D	43	2	9	11	16	-4	0	0	0
Chris Tamer	D	72	1	9	10	118	-10	0	0	0
Jeff Cowan	LW	66	3	5	8	115	-15	0	0	0
Per Svartvadet	C	62	1	7	8	8	-11	0	0	0
Mark Hartigan	C	23	5	2	7	6	-8	1	0	0
Jeff Odgers	RW	74	2	4	6	171	-13	0	0	1
Chris Herperger	C	27	4	1	5	7	-11	0	0	0
Kamil Piros	C	3	3	2	5	2	4	0	0	1
Mike Weaver	D	40	0	5	5	20	-5	0	0	0
Kirill Safronov	D	32	2	2	4	14	-10	0	0	0
Pasi Nurminen	G	52	0	3	3	4	0	0	0	0
Yuri Butsayev	LW	16	2	0	2	8	-5	0	0	0
Joe DiPenta	D	3	1	1	2	0	3	0	0	0
Garnet Exelby	D	15	0	2	2	41	0	0	0	0
Tomi Kallio	LW	5	0	2	2	4	-2	0	0	0
Francis Lessard	RW	18	0	2	2	61	1	0	0	0
Ben Simon	LW	10	0	1	1	9	0	0	0	0
Zdenek Blatny	LW	4	0	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0
Frederic Cassivi	G	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Byron Dafoe	G	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Farkas	RW	3	0	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0
Kurtis Foster	D	2	0	0	0	0	-2	0	0	0
Simon Gamache	C	2	0	0	0	2	-1	0	0	0
Milan Hnilicka	G	21	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Uwe Krupp	D	4	0	0	0	10	-2	0	0	0
J.P. Vigier	RW	13	0	0	0	4	-13	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T/OT	GA	GAA	SO	SA	SV	SV%
Pasi Nurminen	2856	52	21	19	5	137	2.88	2	1452	1315	.906
Byron Dafoe	895	17	5	11	1	65	4.36	0	472	407	.862
Milan Hnilicka	1097	21	4	13	1	65	3.56	0	605	540	.893
Frederic Cassivi	123	2	1	1	0	11	5.37	0	58	47	.810
Team:	4971	82	31	44	7	278	3.36	2	2587	2309	.893

[4]

Note:

Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Transactions

The Thrashers were involved in the following transactions during the 2002–03 season. [5]

Trades

June 22, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers 3rd round pick in 2002 - John Adams 4th round pick in 2003 - Guillaume Desbiens	To Florida Panthers Thrashers promised not to pick Jay Bouwmeester with 2nd overall selection
June 22, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers Slava Kozlov 2nd round pick in 2002 - Joakim Lindstrom	To Buffalo Sabres 2nd round pick in 2002 - Jeff Deslauriers 3rd round pick in 2002 - John Adams
June 22, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers 1st round pick in 2002 - Jim Slater	To Columbus Blue Jackets 2nd round pick in 2002 - Joakim Lindstrom 3rd round pick in 2002 - Jeff Genovy
June 29, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers Shawn McEachern 6th round pick in 2004 - Dan Turple	To Ottawa Senators Brian Pothier
October 4, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers Jeff Cowan 6th round pick in 2003 - Drew Bagnall	To Dallas Stars Stephane Robidas
November 15, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers Marc Savard	To Calgary Flames Ruslan Zainullin
December 2, 2002	To Atlanta Thrashers Chris Nielsen Petteri Nummelin	To Columbus Blue Jackets Tomi Kallio Pauli Levokari
January 20, 2003	To Atlanta Thrashers Jeff Farkas	To Vancouver Canucks Chris Herperger Chris Nielsen
February 24, 2003	To Atlanta Thrashers 6th round pick in 2004 - Josh Disher 8th round pick in 2004 - Nathan Perkovich	To New Jersey Devils Pascal Rheaume
March 10, 2003	To Atlanta Thrashers 4th round pick in 2003 - Mike Vanelli	To New Jersey Devils Richard Smehlik 6th round pick in 2004 - Josh Disher 8th round pick in 2004 - Nathan Perkovich
March 11, 2003	To Atlanta Thrashers Anthony Aquino	To Dallas Stars 6th round pick in 2003 - Drew Bagnall Future Considerations

Free agents signed

July 10, 2002	From Buffalo Sabres Richard Smehlik
July 19, 2002	From Detroit Red Wings Uwe Krupp
July 23, 2002	From Calgary Flames Dallas Eakins
August 1, 2002	From Ottawa Senators Chris Herperger
November 19, 2002	From Boston Bruins Byron Dafoe
March 28, 2003	From Michigan State (CCHA) Brian Maloney

Free Agents Lost

July 15, 2002

To Pittsburgh Penguins Vladimir Vujtek

Waivers Claims

October 4, 2002

From Montreal Canadiens Stephane Robidas

Draft picks

Atlanta's draft picks at the 2002 NHL Entry Draft held at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

Round	#	Player	Nationality	College/Junior/Club Team (League)
1	2	Kari Lehtonen	Finland	Jokerit (Finland)
1	30	Jim Slater	United States	Michigan State University (CCHA)
4	116	Patrick Dwyer	United States	Western Michigan University (CCHA)
4	124	Lane Manson	Canada	Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL)
5	144	Paul Flache	Canada	Brampton Battalion (OHL)
6	167	Brad Schell	Canada	Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
7	198	Nathan Oystrick	Canada	Northern Michigan University (CCHA)
8	230	Colton Fretter	Canada	Chatham Maroons (WOHL)
8	236	Tyler Boldt	Canada	Kamloops Blazers (WHL)
8	257	Pauli Levokari	Finland	HIFK (Finland)

References

1. https://www.hockey-reference.com/leagues/NHL_2003.html
2. Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2009). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book/2010. Dan Diamond & Associates. p. 163.
3. "2002–2003 Standings by Conference". National Hockey League. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
4. "2002-03 Atlanta Thrashers Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
5. https://www.prosportstransactions.com/hockey/Search/SearchResults.php?Player=&Team=Thrashers&BeginDate=2002-06-01&EndDate=2003-06-01&PlayerMovementChkBx=yes&submit=Search